I provide an insider's view of the modern business world based on my years of experience working as an executive and consultant within the Global 3000. I am the CEO for Raynforest Inc, an Influencer Marketing Network, and the author of Socialized! which some call “the playbook for Social Business”. Want to learn more? Follow me on Twitter @MarkFidelman, Facebook, or circle me on Google+.

Study: 78% Of Salespeople Using Social Media Outsell Their Peers

When Jim Keenan, the social sales specialist, describes his work today, he’ll tell you that he’s “ushering salespeople from the old world into the social world” – the cold calling world to the Twitter world, the salespeople who call prospects incessantly to the salespeople who educate their prospects with relevant content. Keenan’s argument in the The Rise of Social Salespeople is that using social media to sell – increases profits.

But up until now, we’ve had no real data. So sensing an opportunity, Keenan’s firm recently released a report on the impact of social media on quota attainment and the results were impressive.

The most interesting finding was that in 2012, 78.6% of sales people using social media to sell out performed those who weren’t using social media. He tells me he wasn’t expecting a number that high. Then, Keenan found that when it came to exceeding sales quota (exceeding quota by more than 10%), social media users were 23% more successful than their non-social media peers. Keenan told me that no matter how you sliced the data, social media users came out on top. (Note: You can download The Impact of Social Media on Sales Quota and Corporate Revenue here:)

I realize that many will argue that the numbers may mean more correlation than causation -and they have a point. But consider that over half of the respondents (54%) who used social media tracked their social media usage back to at least one closed deal. Over 40% said they’ve closed between two and five deals as a result of social media and more than 10% of the respondents said; “Yes, It directly contributes to my closes.” Respondents were very clear. Social media was a leading factor in their closed deals.

As you dig deeper into the data, it continued to support the premise, social media helps sales people make quota. Let’s take a look at Keenan’s data:

Social media users have also exceeded quota (exceeded quota by 10% of more) at higher rate than non-social media users every year since 2010. That means more social media users are at Presidents Club than non-social media users.

Not only do social media users achieve and exceed quota (win) more often than non-social media users, they also don’t miss quota (lose) as often. In 2012 non-social media users missed quota (by more than 10% or more) 15% more often than social media users.

With numbers like these and the success sales people are having using social media it begs the question, how much time are sales people spending on social sites and the answer from Keenan’s report is quite surprising. 50.1% of sales people who report using social media state that they spend less than 10% of their selling time using social media. That’s decent ROI.

Keenan says the top social selling sites were, in order, Linkedin, Twitter, FacebookFacebook, Blogging, GoogleGoogle+, other. He also tells me that almost 75% of the sales people surveyed said they have not received formal training from their company on how to use social media at all. I’m guessing that it’s primarily due to sales management and their lack of social sales understanding.

Keenan reminds me that social selling is not a panacea. But as he’s shown, those who have been using it are quickly gaining a competitive advantage. If Keenan’s data is statistically valid, then it’s clear. Social media can positively affect quota – which impacts revenue – which leads to better growth opportunities for business.

That also means that Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Google Plus, a blog, etc. are no longer nice to haves, they are salesperson must haves.

Post Your Comment

Post Your Reply

Forbes writers have the ability to call out member comments they find particularly interesting. Called-out comments are highlighted across the Forbes network. You'll be notified if your comment is called out.

Comments

My last pay check was $9500 working 12 hours a week online. My sisters friend has been averaging 15k for months now and she works about 20 hours a week. I can’t believe how easy it was once I tried it out. This is what I do, www.ownjobs1.com

If you think Curtis`s story is unbelievable,, 5 weaks-ago my uncle’s girlfriend also got a cheque for $4910 sitting there a thirteen hour week from there apartment and there classmate’s step-aunt`s neighbour done this for seven months and earned more than $4910 parttime On their laptop. the steps from this web-site………. Fℴx85.ℂℴm

I get paid over $87 per hour working from home with 2 kids at home. I never thought I’d be able to do it but my best friend earns over 10k a month doing this and she convinced me to try. The potential with this is endless. Heres what I’ve been doing, www.ownjobs1.com

Mark, Great summary of Jim Keenan’s research on the Rise of the Social Sales person.

Jim’s a good friend whom I deeply respect. Interesting fact that people forget is that Sales has always been Social. Authentically connecting with your prospects so that they open up and share how you can help them has been a key skill in sales since the beginning of time. Now we are learning to do it more and more electronically via the various social networks.

It takes a pretty Nimble sales person to manage all of those networks….

Sellers need tools to help them dig through the mountain of information available on the internet in order to have a relevant conversation with a prospect. InsideView www.insideview.com makes that happen bringing important company and contact information right to the existing CRM system in place. Gain an edge using sales intelligence using InsideView.

As a former sales rep who quit cold calling to use social media, I can confirm that social media for sales does work.

In fact, I was able to measure my success. I calculated a 480% ROI on my social media efforts which translated to $320,000 in new business revenue for my former employer. This amount was relatively substantial. My contribution to new revenue was nearly 25% from a team of 10 people.

That wasn’t even the best part. I found myself competing less on price than my colleagues and getting more referrals than I ever had. I suspect the reason for this was because I was offering clients value (via content marketing) and building a reputation of knowledgable partner before ever stepping foot into an office with a proposal.

Just last year, I completed a case study explaining exactly what I did, how I measured it and key lessons learned from switching from cold calling to social media. Here is a link to a free copy if you’re interested

“In fact, I was able to measure my success. I calculated a 480% ROI on my social media efforts which translated to $320,000 in new business revenue for my former employer. This amount was relatively substantial. My contribution to new revenue was nearly 25% from a team of 10 people.” Wow, 480% RIO? Sounds to me like you have a training opportunity here.

I agree with the findings. Marketing for the most part already gets it, but B2B and B2C businesses need to get the sales side of their organizations up to speed. Customers will not only seek out information on a company along with their product or service, but they will also seek information on the sales representative well in advance to speaking or meeting with them. Another reason business needs to get on board is for compliance and consistent messaging.

Mark – thanks so much for your report on social selling!! Jim and I worked together as a team to conduct the survey that led to our report Social Media and Sales Quota. It is very exciting to see how well received the data has been. For myself personally, it has been 7+ years that I’ve evangelized the idea that social media plays a role in selling more successfully, so it was great to finally have hard data (other than with my own clients) to back up that belief. What is important to note is that the technology – by itself – does not replace great sales skills, but when you meld the two together, it makes for a very powerful combination. Thanks again!

Taking it a bit further…A little rubber to the road tip that we use to prospect smarter.

We setup free email alerts from indeed.com (job site which pulls from all the biggies) based on job title, category and location. Since we know who’s hiring for what (aka the problem they are trying to solve), our biggest challenge is finding the actual person to find who heads that department. Linkedin is absolutely beautiful for this. We connect through the chain and bingo. Thanks for the stats!

In the post, you say the following: “He also tells me that almost 75% of the sales people surveyed said they have not received formal training from their company on how to use social media at all.”

I don’t think these sales people will be around. Today, you can’t wait for your company to provide you the training using social media. You have to be constantly learning ans experimenting. It is tough but this is the new reality.